Generating Package Version Files

Explore how to generate package version files in CMake using the CMakePackageConfigHelpers module. Understand maintaining backward compatibility and specifying version compatibility levels to help developers find and use correct package versions during project builds.

We'll cover the following...

Package version and CMakePackageConfigHelpers utility module
- Keyword COMPATIBILITY
Example
Try it yourself

Interestingly, CMakePackageConfigHelpers also provides a helper command to generate package's version files. Let's take a look.

As our package grows, it will slowly gain new features, old ones will be marked as deprecated, and eventually be removed. It's important to keep track of these modifications in a changelog that's available to developers that use our package. When a specific feature is needed, a developer can find the lowest version that supports it and use it as an argument to find_package(), like so:

1.Introduction to the Course

2.First Steps with CMake

3.The CMake Language

4.Setting Up Our First CMake Project

5.Working with Targets

6.Compiling C++ Sources with CMake

7.Linking with CMake

Assessment

8.Managing Dependencies with CMake

9.Testing Frameworks

10.Program Analysis Tools

11.Generating Documentation

12.Installing and Packaging

13.Creating Our Professional Project

14.Conclusion

15.Appendix

Generating Package Version Files